


Inhale

by chelonianmobile



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Angst, Blood, Breathplay, Dream Bubbles, Drowning, FakeOtherkin!Cronus, Kink Meme, M/M, Rape, Rape Aftermath, Self-cest, Victim Blaming
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-28
Updated: 2014-01-07
Packaged: 2018-01-06 10:13:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1105590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chelonianmobile/pseuds/chelonianmobile
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A self-fill from the kinkmeme. "Cronus is quite the me-too-er; every time he hears of a new thing which will get him attention, he insists he has or is it. It's annoying enough when he does it with emerging subcultures, most of which he drops after a day or so, but when he does it with serious personal issues, it really pisses everyone off. Then, when he actually does have a problem he needs help with, nobody believes him."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It hurt to run, but he didn’t stop; he couldn’t stop. He ran full-tilt for the central bubble, for light and company, trying to ignore the burn as his wounds knitted. He’d lost his shoes in the water, and he left violet-tinted wet footprints which faded as he remembered what it was like to be dry. The violet stains remained even when the saltwater was gone. He couldn’t force away the thoughts of what had happened.

His right arm hugged his body, even that light pressure hurting, and his left hand checked his facial fins. They were regrowing quickly, and relief tinged his shame, followed by guilt, but fuck his persona, fuck whether he was indeed hurting Horuss by faking it as Kankri insisted, he _liked_ his fins. Or he had before he saw the identical ones on someone else...

Suddenly there was a body in his path and he cannonned into it, unable to stop in time. He registered warmth and red wool under him and rolled off the small body, trembling. Kankri sat up, rubbing his head.

“Cronus, what on Beforus are you doi-” He cut off suddenly, staring at Cronus’ face. His fins were back to normal, but his face was deathly pale under the violet stains of sweat and tears, and he was shaking. Surely Kankri would realise something was terribly wrong, surely he would help…

“What happened to your hair?”

~~~

Dualscar was a little shorter than Cronus, and that was a surprise; even seadwellers that far back in Alternia’s history hadn’t got the great nutrition enjoyed on modern Beforus, apparently. Still, Cronus didn’t give a shit. Dualscar was broad-shouldered and scarred and stern and handsome, and he was quite definitely the coolest troll Cronus had ever met. Sadly, the sentiment was clearly not reciprocated.

When he’d wandered across the join between bubbles and landed right in the captain’s cabin, Dualscar had raised an eyebrow and reacted little more. Cronus had scrambled to his knees, recognised the face looking down at him from above the desk, and dropped to the floor again in surprise, babbling in a most uncool manner. Dualscar had looked down his nose at the boy; his nose, Cronus noticed, was broken, giving him an awesomely dangerous air, rather than the stupid pretty-pampered-seadweller upturned point Cronus and his kid descendant back in the bubbles were stuck with and Dualscar had presumably hatched with. Cronus had calmed down and managed to stand up, and bowed in what he hoped was the correct fashion, earning a silent nod and a glass of something which smelled wonderful and tasted like paint thinner. He tried to hide a cough, and drank it anyway.

Dualscar spoke, finally. “So, finally little me gets the wander bug. I’ve seen a few of you brats afore. The Serket kid’s as chatty as ever, the clown as freaky. What do we have in common, I do wonder?”

“I…” Cronus giggled, cleared his throat, and said “Vwell, I guess you got rid a’ the speech impediment.” Dualscar gave him a cold look and he mentally cursed his stupid tongue. “I mean, aheh, I am honoured to be finally meetin’ ya. You’re evwerythin’ I vwanted to be. I mean, I couldn’t be an Orphaner, no need for ‘em vwhere I vwas, but a lawvkeeper, a privwateer, vwith a really big gun, nowv that’s fuckin’ cool.”

Dualscar’s lip quirked in a smile. “I’m glad I could live up to the expectations of a total stranger. Heh, nah, seriously, wiggler, I’ve been here long enough to know the score, I know how the Scratch works; I’m you, as you wished to be. You, with the life ya wished you could have.” He glanced over Cronus again, eyeing his slim muscles, nervously fluttering gills, and over-gelled hair, and added “Apparently the change was more extreme than I thought.”

Cronus scowled, chugged down some more of the horrible burning spirit in defiance, and stuck his cigarette back in his mouth. He’d perfected talking without dropping it; maybe that would be impressive. “Hey, I’m cool, I’m vwith it. I coulda become you myself. Okay, I grewv up on dork planet, but that’s hardly my fault. I stayed aliwve through the game, right? I gotta hawve somethin’ goin’ for me.”

Dualscar grabbed a nearby candelabra and thrust it towards his face. Cronus jerked away before realising Dualscar’s aim was not to harm him but merely to light the cigarette dangling from his lip; the smoke filled his airsacs and he choked, spewing smoke from his gills. Dualscar watched, chuckling darkly; he plucked the cigarette from Cronus’ hand and smugly took a drag himself. Cronus had to admit the guy had style. Of course, he was him after all. He glared, and Dualscar chuckled again.

“Walk with me, boy.”

The night outside was brighter than those on Beforus, two moons glowing above them, and Cronus blinked till his eyes adjusted, hoping Dualscar didn’t notice. He leaned nonchalantly on the railing, determined not to appear impressed by the ship. He could have had one just as cool. Well, Dualscar was him, so technically he did. “‘Salright.”

“My beauty,” Dualscar almost cooed, stroking the railing. “Saw me through my proudest battles with my many enemies and my dear beloathed Marquise.”

“You got yerself a blackrom, then? The Marquise… that’d be Aranea. Huh.” Cronus grinned. “Good to knowv I can keep myself a quadrant if I put my mind to it. Heh, our Serket ain’t my black type, but I gots a good prospect. It’ll get through Captor’s skull any night now.”

“Captor?” Dualscar stilled and looked up. “That’s a yellowblood sigil. A powerful psionic, eh? A worthy rival for a seadweller of our status?”

Shrugging again, Cronus said “Vwell, he vwas. Burned out, but meh. He’s still annoying as fuck. Takin’ me a vwhile to get through to him, ya’d think he’d take a hint.”

Dualscar cackled. “A hint? Nothing more than a hint? Boy, if ya must take a lowblood, take ‘em! Don’t beat about the bush so. What have you done by way of yer ‘hints’?”

“Uh, I tell him he’s stupid all the time. Well, he is!... I… didn’t take my hand off his shoulder vwhen he told me to...” Cronus sagged under Dualscar’s incredulous glare, then shook himself and drew himself up. “Vwell, that’s actually pretty fuckin’ extreme for someone you ain’t officially black with yet! The guys told me to stop, said I vwas goin’ too far, it ain’t my fault he ain’t noticing!”

Dualscar leaned against the railing, howling with laughter again. “Boyo, the Marquise chained my wrists to her mast and beat me bloody with my own swordblade while my crew looked on. In return for that little insult, I broke into her cabin, shoved her precious battle dice up her nook one by fuckin’ one, and fucked her in the other hole with a broken finger as price for every die she dropped. What’s your soft little world like that you can’t even touch your black target?”

“Okay, that’s... kinda hot, but you’re startin’ to creep me out.”

Dualscar laughed again. “Shit, you ain’t me, kid. I may be a fishtroll but I was never as much of a fuckin’ wet rag as you.”

Cronus stopped backing away and indignantly sputtered “Vwet rag?!”

“Yes! You’re lettin’ a pissblood defeat you before you’ve even struck a blow!” Dualscar cuffed Cronus around the head, leaving him with ringing ears, and continued to shout, making them hurt worse. “You little coward! I’m disgusted to think we share any blood, ya spineless stuttering slug!”

“Oh, that is fucking _it!”_ Cronus snarled, and threw a punch which only resulted in Dualscar catching his wrist and dealing him another strike with the other hand. He put his head down and thrust his horns forward, and the sharp corners hit Dualscar in the forehead; they locked horns, and started to grapple in earnest, shouting and snarling and cursing.

Cronus was no weakling, he had spent three long and painful sweeps battling everything from imps to ogres to the Black King himself, but three sweeps versus thousands were useless and those three sweeps had been long ago. Cronus had come across memories of the game’s opponents in his aeons in the bubbles, but he preferred to avoid them rather than wear himself out battling them again. Maybe if he’d reached God Tier he’d have stood a chance, he thought. Or maybe not. What did a Bard even do? It was so long since he’d bothered to care. The aeons had felt like days as he experienced them, but now they seemed twice their real length as he tried to remember beyond them for any useful experience from his life...

Dualscar was not like the imps. Dualscar was broader and heavier than Cronus, stronger than Cronus, older and wiser and battle-scarred from a lifetime on a death world, and knew all of Cronus’ favourite combat tricks because they were his as well, and there was no sprite or server player to help. Within moments Cronus was on his back, claws around his throat, trying desperately to throw Dualscar off. He succeeded in rolling them over, Dualscar hauled himself back on top, they rolled again without noticing the gap in the railings and hit the water together with a tremendous splash.

Cronus’ mouth was open in a howl of pain as he went under, Dualscar’s teeth locked in his fin and shaking him like a barkbeast would a rodent, and the breath was knocked out of both of them, airbubbles spraying from their gills. Dualscar’s inflow gills opened up smoothly, but as Cronus finally succeeded in tearing his copy away from his face - a mistake, as Dualscar took half the fin with him - Dualscar must have noticed the unsteady fluttering of Cronus’ own gills.

There was a relatively simple surgery to fix misshapen gills, but it had been arranged for after Cronus finished his growth so there was no risk that it would have to be done twice, and SGrub had arrived before his hospital date had. Apparently the surgery had indeed been available in Dualscar’s time, the effect of which was that he was breathing comfortably while Cronus was coughing, bloody saltwater leaking painfully into his airsacs and not enough oxygen reaching him. He released Dualscar’s horns and kicked towards the surface, and found himself being dragged deeper as Dualscar’s arms wrapped around his chest. He tried to kick again, their legs entwined, and Dualscar’s snarl became a horrible smirk.


	2. Chapter 2

“... and… and he…” Cronus swallowed hard, and rested his hand on his belt, looking downwards, hoping the gesture would get the point across. He chewed his lip, waiting for Kankri to speak.

Finally, he did. “Cronus, while I hope you’ll forgive my use of potentially triggering language, that is disgusting.

“I-I know, I feel vworse’n I evwer thought I-”

“Good! You should feel terrible for making up such dreadful lies!”

Cronus gaped. “Vwhat?”

“Cronus, what you have just described is a serious and terrible thing that can have a strong deleterious effect on the rest of a troll’s life, not something you can just throw around when you get bored! It’s not like magic, you know.”

“But-”

“No, I don’t want to hear it! Honestly, I thought this kind of attention-seeking was beneath even you.” Kankri stood up and shook his head. “Excuse me, I must go and seek out some literature on the topic so I may explain properly why that was inappropriate. I’ll be back soon, I’d appreciate it if you found a secluded spot so I can explain without being walked in on by someone who may be triggered by the discussion. Most people don’t want to talk about that kind of thing.” He strutted off, nose in the air, leaving Cronus sitting slack-jawed on the grass.

Cronus found his voice in time to shout after Kankri, who ignored him completely. “You pick _nowv_ to stop believwin’ evwerything I say?!”


	3. Chapter 3

Cronus’ hands were well-kept, calloused across the fingertips from his guitar but otherwise soft, the claws filed blunt enough not to cut the strings. They clenched around Dualscar’s horns again, clawing ineffectively at his scalp. Dualscar’s hands were no bigger than his, but scarred and rough and so much stronger; they pulled Cronus’ shirt from his belt and let it float up as they worked under it and explored his open gills. Cronus squirmed and tried to kick, succeeding only in grinding himself into Dualscar’s thigh. The older troll’s grin widened, and the claws tickling the rims of Cronus’ gills dug in painfully and held them open. Cronus gulped in water, swallowing as well as inhaling until he felt sick, not able to hold it in his gills long enough to absorb a full breath. The gel was washing out of his hair in the currents, and his fringe floated around him and caught in his eyelashes, mingling with purple where his eyes watered.

Dualscar whispered in his ear, tiny airbubbles bursting on his skin. “Look at me, boy. No, look me in the eye. I’d rather not see your ugly excuse for my face but I want you to keep your eyes on mine.”

He didn’t want to look. He tried to force himself, his eyes flicking around in search of an escape route or of anything else to look at but his copy’s eyes, until Dualscar’s fingers wrapped around his throat and simultaneously forced his chin up and pinned his neck-gills firmly shut. His eyes bulged, and he tried to breathe through his mouth while gritting his teeth in pain as an ache swelled in his chest.

“Stubborn little cunt. Maybe we’re not so different. No matter...” Dualscar abruptly twisted his wrists, his claws tearing into the delicate flesh, and Cronus uttered a scream which was cut off as Dualscar’s mouth locked onto his. For a moment his breathing situation was even worse, and he thrashed like a landed fish, but at least his gills were now free, albeit bleeding. He hoped there were no sharks in the dreambubbles. He couldn’t die, whatever happened to his body, but that was no comfort. He struggled harder, imagining Dualscar simply holding on to him for long after his stupid fucked-up gills should have killed him, he’d been the only seadweller who could drown and now he didn’t even have the hope of that for release, he could be trapped here in his copy’s arms for hours or days or years, adult seadwellers could wait as long as they liked and an Alternian would not get bored as long as he could watch someone suffering... 

He bit down experimentally on the tongue crawling into his mouth, not even hard enough to draw blood, and earned a much stronger bite to his lips. Dualscar drew back, leaving him gagging.

“Heh. You impress me, brat. Maybe I did produce a decent spawn after all.”

Even in his current situation, Cronus couldn’t hold back his indignation, and panic made him lose control of his tongue. “Your spawvn? Yours? I came first, man! You’re the one vwho got cloned from me!”

Dualscar placed another kiss on the corner of his mouth, light and mocking. “Then the defects were repaired in the remaking.”

~~~

They had parted on decent terms way back, even if they didn’t speak much these days, and Cronus still felt a little better when he remembered sitting in the junk pile, huddled against the big warm body, chatting about anything and nothing and whatever was important to five-sweep-olds. Never anything this important, but it was an emergency, surely he’d understand.

Horuss was sitting by the lily pool, Meulin curled up in his lap. Cronus was too distressed to feel jealousy of any quadrant variety. He limped up, still sore. “Uh, hey, Hor, can I…”

“Ampora, I have requested multiple times that you do not call me that,” said Horuss, not losing his unbearable creepy grin. Cronus looked away; it brought back fresh unpleasant memories. “It sounds most inappropriate.”

“Sorry, but this is kinda big and I really need to talk to someone and Kan’s bein’ a big stuck-up jackass.”

That did cause Horuss to have something resembling a normal facial expression, this time one of curiosity. “What is it?”

“I… I…” Cronus blinked back tears and sniffed. “Uh. Can Meulin leawve? I don’t vwanna say this to her...”

“Mister Ampora, anything you wish to say to me can be said in front of my moirail. If it cannot, I humbly request that you do not say it to me either. Besides, if this is as important as you say, surely more people hearing about it is good?”

“No, I mean it’s privwate…”

“I remind you that I am not your moirail anymore, and have not been for many sweeps. I am willing to help you but it is not acceptable to demand pale services from me in front of my current moirail. In fact, it is quite… lewd.” Meulin nodded and hissed between her teeth.

Cronus shuddered. “Okay, but don’t tell anyone else, please, okay? ‘Cause I… I met my other self. The one from Alternia, I mean. Dualscar.”

“Oh, congratulations!” Horuss’ grin returned. “I’ve been seeking out my own, but with no luck so far. Honestly, one would think he was avoiding me, but surely that can’t be true…”

“Vwill ya shut up and let me speak?! Okay, sorry, sorry, I’m calm, but this is hard. See, I met him an’...” Cronus shuddered and felt tears rising again, and hugged himself, his voice trailing off almost to inaudibility. “... he… he fucked me.”

Meulin must have been able to read his lips with reasonable accuracy, as she immediately leapt up with an ear-piercing squeal and grabbed Cronus’ hand, squeezing it tight and pumping it with impressive strength. “MOG MOG MOG NO WAI! I’M SO HAPPY FOR YOU! HORUSS, DID YOU HEAR? CRONUS FILLED A Q-”

“Keep it down!” Cronus snapped at her. “No, I did not!”

“THIS IS SO GREAT, NOW I CAN UPDATE MY CANON SHIPS!” Before Cronus could stop her, Meulin pranced off, tail swinging cheerfully.

Horuss sighed. “I apologise for her enthusiasm. What was that you said? I couldn’t hear over her screaming.”

“I said I didn’t fill a quadrant!”

“Why is that a problem? You have expressed multiple times that you don’t want any quadrant commitments, you merely wish to engage in crude behaviours outside them.”

“Vwhat? No, I didn’t vwant to…”

“Ampora, please. This is becoming uncomfortably pale. I told you, that was over long ago. If you have problems with your clone’s interactions with you, merely speak to him about them. Rufioh and I speak to each other about our problems all the time, and see how well we get along.”

Even in his current state of misery, Cronus couldn’t stop himself laughing. Horuss glared, got up, and pushed him away, muttering something about going to calm Meulin down.


	4. Chapter 4

His chest was burning and his mouth and nose were filling with blood from where Dualscar had bitten and struck him.

“P-please, man, this ain’t funny… Take me back up. Please, just take me back to the surface.” Cronus’ voice cracked as Dualscar slipped a hand between them; he felt the stitches of the seam between his legs give way one by one under the razor-sharp claws. The split seam allowed him to kick harder than the undersized skinny jeans had before, but it was still no help. “C’mon, you can fuck me, please, I don’t care, I vwoulda begged you before, I vwanted it, I still don’t mind nowv, but not like this, just take me back to the ship, just _let me fuckin’ breathe!”_

“If you want to breathe better, stop talkin’,” Dualscar growled. “Running yer yap won’t help you.” He squeezed Cronus’ neck, shutting off his inflow gills again and pressing his windpipe closed, his other hand peeling the cloth apart.

“Please, no, stop, you’re hurtin’ me…” Cronus whimpered, and tried to hide behind his free-floating hair.

“Aww, well, ain’t that sad.”

“I can’t, I can’t, I can’t…”

“I can.”

Cronus shrieked, bubbles pouring from his mouth, as the claws tore into him. Dualscar’s mouth pressed against his ear again.

“I died with my gun in there, boy. You’re gettin’ off light.”

~~~

“Go fuck yourself, Ampora.”

“I _did,_ that’s the problem! No, stop laughin’, it’s not funny!.... vwait, vwhere’re you goin’? No, don’t leawve me…”

“Stop followin’ me! I don’t give a shit, do you understand me? If it’s true then maybe now ya might get why nobody likes you!” Meenah snarled. “Now you know how ‘Tuna feels.” Latula nodded, her face grim for once. When Cronus looked pleadingly at her, she spat at his feet.

“Vwhat?! I- I only… I didn’t… shit, Peixes, I think I’m still bleedin’ and...”

“You know what, fucker?” Meenah rested the tip of her trident on his chin. “I was ashen as shit for you two. I thought someone otter get between you. He don’t deserve the shit you pull, but I thought you deserved a chance to be better. You’re annoyin’, sure, but I thought you were gonna turn out not to be nothin’ but annoyin’. I wanted to give you two some help.”

“This ain’t the time-”

“But now I see I ain’t gonna get results tryin’ ta cool you off. You need to stay away from ‘Tuna, get me? _Far_ away, you sick fuck, or I’ll see if I can get this in three a’ your natural holes at once!”

Cronus turned on his heel and fled, and Meenah sniffed. “Fucker.”

“Yeah.” Latula hopped back on her board. “I should go keep an eye on ‘Tuna in case he tries anything…”


End file.
